As an extension of the Joint Precision Automatic Landing System (JPALS) effort, the US Air Force Research Laboratory at Hanscom AFB, Massachusetts, has awarded Max-Viz a contract to evaluate enhanced vision systems (EVS) as part of a sophisticated next-generation approach system.
Portland, Oregon-based Max-Viz is developing infrared EVS technology for corporate and commercial aircraft and will work with Oregon Graduate Institute (OGI) on the USAF contract. OGI is a specialist in EVS sensor fusion algorithm development and will lead efforts to integrate the aircraft sensor data with neural net computing technology.
Max-Viz vice-president and chief technology officer Dick Kerr says: "This system will correlate data with digital information using massively parallel computers operating in a unit patterned after the human brain." One of the testbeds for the programme is likely to be a Boeing C-17 prototype.
Max-Viz expects to complete an initial nine-month phase by the end of the first quarter of 2003, followed by a two-year, $1 million phase. The company is hopeful of bidding for a third phase in 2005.
The JPALS effort is in the concept and technology demonstration phase. The programme has identified local area differential GPS as the preferred precision approach and landing solution, and architecture definition work is under way.
Source: Flight International
